PCSO to assist typhoon victims

The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office will assist Typhoon Lando (international name Koppu) victims through hospitalization assistance in areas hit by the storm.

PCSO Vice Chairman and General Manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas 2nd said that the charity agency will shoulder the bills of those confined or treated in public hospitals as a direct result of the effects of Lando.

“PCSO’s Branch Operations and Charity sectors,” said Rojas, “particularly the Northern and Central Luzon departments, are closely monitoring the situation in Aurora province and other vulnerable areas.”

Rojas said that the present PCSO Board of Directors made it a policy of the agency to subsidize the bills of patients directly affected by national emergencies and calamities who are being treated at government hospitals and healthcare facilities.

The policy is applied during occasions of natural disasters and national emergencies; in the past these included typhoons Yolanda, Glenda, Milenyo, Sendong, the conflict in Zamboanga, landslide in Compostela Valley, and many other incidents.

“This is in line,” said Rojas, “with the agency’s charter, Republic Act No. 1169, which mandates that PCSO provide assistance to ‘charities of national character.’”

PCSO is coordinating with other government agencies the other ways that the agency can contribute to relief efforts in the stricken areas.